Koala Go guide

Teaching with Koala Go Guide

Interactivity

★★★★★

Value for money

★★★★★

Device compatibility

★★★★★

Out of class features

★★★★★

What is Koala Go?

Koala Go is an exciting new online teaching platform which offers full interactivity on iPads – perfect for online ESL teachers!

It is designed specifically with virtual teaching in mind, and incorporates useful tools such as a great online whiteboard, fun Minecraft-style virtual learning world, screen-sharing and a co-browser (which allows both you and your students to interact directly with interactive slides such as the Abridge Academy resources and play online games / activities).

For this reason, it is our #1 recommended platform for teaching online.

Right now, Koala Go are offering one month of Koala out for free, then an incredible 20% off future paid subscriptions (or you can continue with just their free plan).

Advantages

Students can directly interact with Abridge Academy slides from any device, including iPads.
Great whiteboard tools and screen-sharing.
Built-in rewards system.
Excellent Minecraft-style “playground” immersive virtual learning world.
Download pre-made classroom templates from the Koala Go marketplace, or sell your own there for extra income!
Create “playground stories” learning adventures for student homework / to sell separately.
Invoice your students through Koala Go (accepts WeChat pay or card).
No software downloads needed – all in the web browser.
Excellent value for money.

Disadvantages

No out-of-class features or booking system.

Premium account features

Unlimited co-browser use.
Upload files (PDF worksheets, PPT slides, etc) to the whiteboard.
Unlimited whiteboards.
Student chat with translation.
Add images and audio to playground.
Bonus gems to spend on playground items.

This guide will answer some common questions for teachers using Koala Go and share helpful tips specific for using the Abridge Academy resources with Koala Go.

Parents guide (Chinese)

Link for parents: YouTube / Bilibili

Written guides for other languages are available on the Teach with Koala website.

Launching Koala Go and adding students

To get started, first visit the Koala Go website, sign up, then click “open Koala Go in browser”. This will load your activities, which are classrooms you can customise and prepare in advance for your students. Be sure to pre-load your Abridge Academy slides in the Koala Go browser (see below) too!

Once you are ready for your class, you can invite students to join using the “invite” button at the top left corner within the Koala Go classroom. Simply copy the code and send it to your student via your preferred communication platform. They will first be placed into a “waiting room” from where you can authorise them to join the class.

How to invite a student to Koala Go classroom

Your code always stays the same, for all your students, so you can easily send it in advance of the class if you wish or add it to your booking system.

Will my Koala Go class link change?

No, your class link always stays the same, for all students and every class. This means that you only need to send them the link once and they can easily join every week.

What stops students entering the incorrect class / crashing someone else’s class?

Koala Go now has a “waiting room” feature. When students click on the link, they are first placed in this waiting room (where they can play a fun game while waiting). When you are ready to let them in, simply authorise them to join. This means that if a student tries to join a class early, while you are still teaching your previous student, you can simply leave them waiting in the waiting room until you are ready. Similarly, if anyone tries to join your classroom whose name you do not recognise, they will not be able to crash your class.

Can I pre-schedule classes in Koala Go?

Koala Go does not have a scheduling system, so you cannot schedule a specific class with a specific student beforehand. However, you can easily use other scheduling software such as Calendly or SuperTeacher, including your Koala Go link in the meeting invite.

Interactivity: Koala Go co-browsing/ web apps tool

This is where the real power of Koala Go joins forces with Abridge Academy! Koala Go’s co-browser allows you and your students to directly interact with the Abridge Academy slides, play online games and browse the internet together.

Simply click on the globe icon (just to the right of the bottom tools menu) to load the Koala Go co-browser. Navigate to the Abridge Academy slides (you will need to log in), click on the full screen button, and you’re ready to go!

It takes a long time to navigate to the slides, can I prepare beforehand?

Yes! Before inviting your student, you can pre-load up the slides in the browser. This means it is all ready to go! The co-browser also persists – this means that you will remain logged in and the slides open next time too.

How do I switch between the whiteboard and Koala Go browser?

From the whiteboard screen, you can click on the globe button (just to the right of the bottom tools menu) to open up the browser. To go back to the whiteboard, click the large cross in the top right corner of the browser. This doesn’t totally close it though, it is still running in the background – so you can easily flick back to the slides later and continue from the same point you left off.

How can students annotate on slides in Koala Go?

You can open the Koala annotation tools by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the screen during the co-browsing session. Note that this also automatically enables the annotation feature for your students too. If you wish to annotate on the slides but without your student also having the ability to draw on the screen, you can instead use the drawing tool built into the Abridge Academy lessons (pen icon at the top right of the slides).

How is co-browsing different to screen sharing?

When you screenshare with software like Zoom, it is one-sided. Only you (the teacher) can click and directly interact with the slides. Students can only annotate on top of the static shared screen. With co-browsing, both you and your student are directly interacting with the slides simultaneously. You can both click, drag-and-drop, type in text boxes, draw with the Abridge Academy slides drawing tool, etc. This is so much more engaging for students, and really makes the most of all the interactivity built into the Abridge Academy slides.

Koala Go whiteboard tools

The Koala Go whiteboard is a great place to supplement Abridge Academy slides with your own activities and games. The whiteboard is available in both the free and paid plans.

Can I prepare my Koala Go classroom in advance?

Absolutely, yes! Before inviting a student, you can prepare various activities on the whiteboard, add images, design fun games, write text, etc. These are saved so you can prepare even days beforehand then come back to the classroom, or re-use a classroom you prepared previously for a another student.

How do I save my Koala Go whiteboard / classroom template?

All changes are automatically saved, so you don’t need to do anything! Simply close the classroom and enjoy the rest of your day. You can then come back to that particular classroom just before your class by selecting it on the “activities” list on your Koala Go homepage.

How can I use the Abridge Academy workbooks in the Koala Go whiteboard?

You can upload the workbook PDF files to the whiteboard (see screenshot above). If you are on the Koala Go free plan (no PDF / PPT uploads), you can instead take a screenshot of the workbook or sections of it, and upload those.

Can I share Koala Go whiteboard templates with other teachers?

Made some amazing Koala Go whiteboard templates? You can share these with other teachers by publishing to the Koala Go marketplace – a great extra source of income. Similarly, you can also buy pre-made Koala Go whiteboard templates with various activities, games and tasks you can do with your students.

Koala Go reward system

During the class, you can click on the “reward” button in the top left corner to give rewards to your students. This includes stars, confetti and gems.

Under the “reward” section, you can also find a dice tool – great for playing educational games together!

How many rewards can I give?

There is no limit to the number of star or confetti rewards you can issue! The exception are the gems, of which you will have a limited number. You can get more gems by signing up for a pro subscription, using their invoicing feature, or directly purchasing.

What are gem rewards in Koala Go?

Gems are a kind of virtual currency students can spend on items in the Koala Go playground.

Koala Go playground

Koala Go’s “playground” area is an incredible Minecraft-style virtual learning world. Here, you can build engaging and exciting activities for your classes.

New to designing in playground? You can also purchase pre-made playground templates from the Koala Go marketplace. This includes some great playgrounds made to supplement the Abridge Academy curriculum – just enter “Abridge Academy” in the search box.

How do I open the Koala Go playground?

Simply click on the squirrel icon at the bottom of the classroom to enter playground.

How can I teach with Koala Go playground / make playground more educational?

As well as the standard building blocks, you can also upload images to the playground – this is a great way to incorporate screenshots of worksheets, flashcards or images for new vocabulary, etc and build games around them. Another useful tool are the sticky notes – these are great for making letter cards for phonics learning activities.

What games or activities can we play in Koala Go playground?

There are literally infinite possibilities for activities in playground – just limited by your imagination! You can create virtual worlds for role-plays (e.g. a shopping street to act out a trip into town), mazes to teach directions, hide-and-seek games, etc.

How can I move around in Koala Go playground?

In the Koala Go playground, you can easily navigate by:
– Using your computer’s arrow keys
– Using your computer’s mouse – click on where you want to go and hold
– Using your finger (on iPads/ other touchscreen devices)

Can I buy / sell Koala Go playgrounds?

Yes! You can sell your playground creations or buy pre-made playgrounds from other teachers in the Koala Go marketplace. This is a great way to make passive income, while also supporting other teachers saving time lesson planning!

Can students join playground outside of class time?

A new feature of Koala Go is playground stories. These are self-paced versions of playground, ideal for homework or for selling as stand-alone learning activities (again, create for passive income!). You can easily create an immersive learning activity within the Koala Go playground virtual learning world using standard playground tools (with images, audio, sticky notes, text, etc). Use “action zones” to unlock chests of treasure or open doors (to the next part of the activity) when they get answers correct, and end with a final reward once they’ve completed the whole activity!

Conclusion

Koala Go is our highest-rated virtual teaching platform for interactivity and classroom tools – perfect for teaching kids with the Abridge Academy curriculum. It is very user-friendly and has some incredible features to make your online teaching more effective and engaging for students.

Get your first month of Koala Go for free (and a 20% discount of your pro subscription) today, and check out the Abridge Academy curriculum for interactive online teaching materials for your independent ESL classes!

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Jeanne Marie Petrus-Rivera

August 1, 2024 at 8:22 pm

Can KG be used with group classes? If so, how many students per class?

Katie
August 2, 2024 at 10:36 am

Yes, you can teach small group classes on Koala Go no problem 🙂 I don’t think there’s an official limit, but I’ve seen their team mention in Facebook posts about this that the recommended maximum is perhaps 20 students.

Teaching with Koala Go Guide

What is Koala Go?

Advantages

Disadvantages

Premium account features

Parents guide (Chinese)

Launching Koala Go and adding students

Interactivity: Koala Go co-browsing/ web apps tool

Koala Go whiteboard tools

Koala Go reward system

Koala Go playground

Conclusion

More teaching guides

ClassIn Guide

Zoom guide

2 thoughts on “Koala Go guide”

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